ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
As interest in women's sports soars, Major League Baseball is stepping up to the plate. For the first time, MLB is investing in a women's professional softball league. It launches tomorrow with a game in Wichita, Kansas, and another outside Chicago. NPR's Amy Held reports that fans are watching to see whether this effort will help equal the playing field.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILDREN: (Chanting) Pump it up.
UNIDENTIFIED LITTLE LEAGUE PLAYERS: (Chanting) Pump it up.
AMY HELD, BYLINE: In Montgomery County, Maryland, Little League girls are getting pumped ahead of practice. Kate Harding favors pitching. At age 10, she's already been playing softball for years.
KATE HARDING: I like all the action and the cheers.
UNIDENTIFIED LITTLE LEAGUE PLAYERS: (Chanting) Win the game.
HELD: Annette Roberts co-founded this league and coaches the Bruins, a team of 10- to 12-year-olds. She says the sport helps the girls build life skills.
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ANNETTE ROBERTS: They love hitting the ball hard and the joy they feel when they catch somebody at home plate on a steal. It's just, you know, giving them so many opportunities to see themselves as being powerful.
HELD: Now they have another opportunity to see powerful players - more than 60 pro athletes on four teams in the new Athletes Unlimited Softball League, competing across 10 cities this summer as women's sports keep growing. About 30% of U.S. adults now follow women's sports at the college or professional level, according to a new poll, and softball plays a part, with viewership in this week's Women (ph) College World Series averaging more than a million viewers per game. ESPN says that's a 25% increase over last year. And softball is returning to the Olympic stage at the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.
JON PATRICOF: It's ready for prime time.
HELD: That's Jon Patricof, CEO of Athletes Unlimited, the organization behind this new softball league.
PATRICOF: Over the last few years, women's sports has received the attention, the distribution, the visibility, and more recently, the marketing support that really is what's required for a pro sport to break through.
HELD: Major League Baseball is providing that marketing support and what it calls a substantial long-term cash investment in the AUSL. Some games will be broadcast on the MLB network and ESPN.
Other attempts at establishing professional women's softball leagues have struck out, most recently in 2021. Wayne McDonnell teaches exercise and sports science at the University of North Carolina. The four teams in this league will be touring around the country without a home base. He says, that's good for building grassroots support, but it'll take time.
WAYNE MCDONNELL: In the past, it's been the whole concept of return on investment and it has to happen immediately, and it's not going to happen in this case.
HELD: AUSL aims to become a city-based league next year and expand to six teams.
MCDONNELL: I think this is a very positive step for women's softball.
HELD: A step - starting young, female athletes still face fewer opportunities on equal playing conditions and pay gaps. A report from UNESCO last year found about half of girls drop out of sports during adolescence, six times higher than the dropout rate of boys. Kate Harding, the young pitcher, says this professional league gives her hope for the sport that she loves.
KATE: Because, like, when you have a dream, like, to play softball, you don't want to just end it right after college ends 'cause you don't have anything to go to.
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HELD: A crack at the pros could give girls another chance to live their dreams. Amy Held, NPR News, Darnestown, Maryland.
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